Looking back at the top 2Beerguy stories of 2008

It was a great year for 2Beerguys.com in 2008.Â Our Craft Beer Education Series took off like a rocket on the 4th of July.Â The beer market started with negative projections from the hop shortage and rise is cost of grains but transformed into a thriving market by years end.

Yes, the consumer did suffer with the increase of beer prices and threat that some craft breweries would not survive.Â It’s true, the average cost of a pint increased 2-3 dollars and some breweries that extended their resources had to close their doors — But the year did turn around.

2008 was the 75th anniversary of the repellation of prohibition and the success of the Free the Hops movement.Â The Big three in the US, became the big 2.Â The largest American owned brewery was bought by outsiders.Â Yes -Â it’s been a strange year.

At 2Beerguys.com, we were very busy.Â We launched a new improved blog, which averages about 20,000 page visits per month [We thank you for visiting our blog].Â We shared over 240 articles and stories.Â The Lowell Beer Works opened.

5 Dollar Trinket Law in California (also known as the Trinket and Trash proposal), made some noise within the craft industry click here

[UPDATE:Â We have learned that the law AB 1245 passed and was signed by the Governor – but the limit was changed from 0.25 cents to $3.00 dollars.Â Click here

AB 1245: Increases the amount that a beer manufacturer can spend on a give-away (advertising specialty) to a consumer from the current $0.25 to $3.00 per item. The value to a retailer remains the same at $0.25 per item. Important things to know about this new law:Wholesalers are excluded from this bill, so your distributor can only give away items valued at $0.25 to consumers.]

The top events/releasesÂ of 2008 (shared on 2Beerguys.com):

BeerAdvocate hosted the East Coastâ€™s Largest American Craft Beer Fest – click here